1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body elongator, and in particular to a body elongator comprising a lower body stretching and elongating structure that can aid to stretch the muscles, providing warm up for exercises, and to prevent muscle cramps. It is convenient for carrying since the two structures can be folded inside a frame.
2. The Prior Arts
Body stretching is mainly to enhance the mobility of the joints, and able to maintain the muscle in a certain length and proper flexibility. Body stretching is required under many circumstances, such as, for example, for the elderly who need to stretch their muscles and tendons, and bones, office workers having to sit for extended durations, people feeling tired because of the body weight stresses exerting on spines, teenagers who wanted to be simulated for additional growth, and patients who need rehabilitation after surgical operations. In addition, body stretching sometimes can be used as a method for warm up of the body before exercising, such as for preventing and alleviating muscle cramps of the track runners, swimmers, and ballet dancers.
At present, irregardless of whether it is the body stretcher sold on the market for physical fitness or the body stretching device provided in hospitals for rehabilitation, they are all bulky and structurally complicated. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,158 discloses leg-stretching and exercising equipment, which is one such classic example. This type of equipment has many disadvantages, such as having a complicated structure that is inconvenient for reassembling and disassembling, and thus cannot be easily carried, and are mostly disposed at stationary locations. As a result, in one aspect, the user would require to first have enough perseverance, and to arrange time to do the body stretching at a specified location. Furthermore, the effectiveness of body stretching is negatively affected because of limited usage time. In addition, due to the excessive size of the device, the user may feel intimidated, and refuse to use it. Accordingly, for those who require to do body stretching everyday, a compact and portable body elongator is necessary.
Apart from the above-mentioned drawbacks due to structural complexity, the conventional body stretching equipment only provides a leg stretching function, which has less added value, and is much more uneconomical for manufacturers and consumers alike.